One of the major causes of eye injury each year is errant flying corks from champagne bottles and other corked bottles having liquid contents under pressure. At serving temperature, the pressure in a champagne bottle is about ninety pounds per square inch, and a cork spontaneously ejected from a bottle after removal of the wire mesh cage attains a velocity of about forty-five feet per second when it strikes the eye. Since a cork traveling at this speed can reach the eye from a distance of two feet in less than 0.05 seconds, and as the blink reflex takes about 0.1 second, the cornea of the eye usually receives the full impact of the cork. The problem of eye injuries due to flying corks has been aggravated by the recent introduction of plastic stoppers for champagne bottles.
Although there is a preferred technique for removing corks from pressurized bottles, even waiters and waitresses who presumably are instructed in the proper technique suffer eye injuries from flying corks. While safety devices have been designed in the past to provide a protective stop against unlimited motion of a cork during removal, these devices usually employ awkward lever-type arrangements which are inconvenient to carry and somewhat cumbersome to use, particularly since most devices have long lever arms extending perpendicular to the axis of the bottle.
In the past, various U.S. patents have issued which relate to the safe removal of champagne bottle corks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,394, issued on Oct. 24, 1989, to C. B. Crudgington, Jr. describes a champagne bottle opener which includes bifurcated jaws for removing the mushroom-shaped stoppers from champagne bottles. Each jaw contains a recess so as to enable the device to be repositioned directly around the stopper's stem and on top of the bottle when the stopper has been partially removed. Clips are provided to the upper jaw so as to prevent the stopper from ricocheting out from under the retaining arm. The retaining arm permits a downwardly directed and manually exerted counter force to be applied to the stopper so as to allow the stopper to be removed slowly.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,583,652, 4,573,602, and 4,564,114 have issued to J. R. Goldberg concerning a molded safety closure device for champagne bottles. This device includes a cylindrical closure element which fits within the mouth of the bottle and which is restrained from flying free of the bottle by a cylindrical retainer collar which fits around the neck of the bottle. The closure element is attached to the collar by a tether strip which is molded integrally with the closure element and the collar and which tears free thereof. The closure element is molded as a separate unitary structure and is secured mechanically by a snap fit around the periphery of one end of the closure element.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,450, issued on Jul. 9, 1985, to B. J. Drosky teaches a stopper extractor that includes a housing having an open end and a closed end and a side-facing cutout on one side of the housing wall with a grip disposed for axial movement within the housing. The side-facing cutouts are sized to allow the enlarged head of a stopper to be inserted laterally into the grip. The extractor is mounted over the stopper with the open end against the container and the grip lip under the lower edge of the cork head. A rocking of the handle will pivot a cam so as to raise the grip. This causes the open end to bear downwardly against the container and the grip to move axially upwardly within the housing to pull the cork from the container and into the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,870, issued on Apr. 30, 1985, to E. Zaltsman provides a bottle with a one-piece cork. This device employs a tether which is molded into the cork. When the cork is removed from the bottle, an energy-absorbing link serves to prevent the cork from flying away from the bottle at high speeds.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,735, issued on Apr. 17, 1984, to Chance et al. describes a safety device for preventing the premature expulsion of a stopper from a champagne bottle. A body is provided having a top and downwardly extending opposed leg portions attached to the top. Each of the leg portions has upper and lower inner ledge portions. The upper ledge portion is positioned for engagement with the lower rim surface of the stopper. The lower edge portion is positioned to provide a limit stop with the lower surface of the neck ridge upon upward motion of the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,110, issued on Apr. 19, 1977, to S. C. Spriggs shows a hand manipulable device for removing bottle stoppers. This device includes upper and lower bifurcated jaws engagable around the neck of a bottle between the shoulder and mouth of the bottle for engagement of the upper jaw below the overhanging stopper head whereby a spreading of the jaws effects an upward withdrawal of the stopper. A retaining arm is fixed to the upper jaw and extends generally centrally thereover in outwardly spaced relationship thereto.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a safety device for champagne bottle corks which prevents the explosive ejection of the stopper.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a safety device for champagne bottle corks that is easy to use.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a safety device that cushions the impact of the champagne cork.
It is still a further object and advantage of the present invention to provide a safety device for champagne bottles which is easy to manufacture, easy to install, and relatively inexpensive.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.